Police are still on the lookout for the motorcycle gunman who killed 3 Jewish children and a rabbi at a school in southern France yesterday. The incident is being considered a racially motivated crime.

Should we want free elections when a totalitarian regime threatens to win through the polls? Can election be used to give the enemies of democracy the keys to an imperfect democracy? This is the recurring Arab-Muslim world dilemma. It has arisen dramatically in Algeria. It has arisen on the eve of every election in Egypt. If it was easy to solve, it would have been long ago. Theoretically, there are two conflicting abstract temptations – angelic democracy and cynical democracy.

A European issue par excellence, the Roma issue has undisputed potential to rouse nationalism. It can kill the European dream. Unless and until the EU is committed to urgently improving the situation of the Roma in Bulgaria and Romania, France will have to find strength to remain itself, says Caroline Fourest.